Is Deep Space Nine racist?

[MacLeod]

Some of the characters certainly are (well, specisist) but I don't think the show endorses their beliefs. Kira, a resistance fighter, learns that it isn't enough that someone is Cardassian, she got to a place she was able to hate someone for what they did, not who they were, even though she and her people suffered at the hands of a specific group for 50 years. Odo, though he flirts with the Great Link, also never really embraces the Founders' belief that all solids are to be avoided and feared (at worst) and controlled (at best). Sisko's love interest (forget her name at the moment) also reminds him that Vic's racially-integrated 1952 Vegas lounge was not an accurate portrayal of the show circuit at the time, but rather a picture of "the way things could have been, the way they should have been."

Trek as a whole has always pushed for more racial inclusion than the mainstream culture accepted at the time. Nichelle Noris was the first black person on television who wasn't a maid, the first interracial kiss on TV was on TOS, and there were lots of TNG, DS9 and VOY episodes that delt with racism.

I don't think ST can lay claim to the first interracial kiss on TV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_interracial_kiss_on_television

 

[Nerys Myk]

Trek as a whole has always pushed for more racial inclusion than the mainstream culture accepted at the time. Nichelle Noris was the first black person on television who wasn't a maid,

There were already non-maid black characters on TV prior to Star Trek: Cicely Tyson on East Side West Side, Bill Cosby on I Spy, Greg Morris on Mission: Impossible and Ivan Dixon on Hogan's Heroes to name a few. All in roles much more significant than Uhura.

 

[Prax]

I don't think ST can lay claim to the first interracial kiss on TV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_interracial_kiss_on_television

Well, they can claim the first interracial kiss, between a white person and a black person, on the lips, on tv in America.

Still works. You just have to add a qualifier.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, they can claim the first interracial kiss, between a white person and a black person, on the lips, on tv in America.

Still works. You just have to add a qualifier.

Or three.

 

[kkt]

Well, they can claim the first interracial kiss, between a white person and a black person, on the lips, on tv in America.

Still works. You just have to add a qualifier.

During scripted series television.

 

[Tenacity]

^ Providing that the kiss between Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. wasn't "scripted."

Meaning both performers knew ahead of time that they were going to exchange a kiss at a certain point.

 

[Prax]

It was scripted, just not on the lips.

 

[MacLeod]

At best ST might be able to lay claim to

The first interracial kiss between a black actor and white actor during a drama show on US TV show.

 

[dub]

A friend (well, twitter-friend I guess) was up to S3 of DS9 and declared he thinks the show is racist.

Hey hey, ho ho, DS9 has got to go.